Masked Man
The Masked Man (Japanese: 仮面の男 Masked Man), also referred to as the "Mask of Ice" (Japanese: マスク・オブ・アイス Mask of Ice), is the main antagonist of the in the Pokémon Adventures manga, serving as the leader of Team Rocket after Giovanni disbands it but before the s take over. History Past The Masked Man initially used to kidnap , , Carl, Sham, Will, and Karen as children based on their potential as Trainers. and escaped from him and went to great lengths to figure out his identity. When Team Rocket disbanded in Kanto, he collected the remaining grunts and revived the organization in Johto with himself as the new leader and the remaining kidnapped children as administrators. The Masked Man's goal was to capture and make use of its time travel powers. Gold was able to retrieve a scrap of his clothing and gave it to Professor Elm, who examined it and later realized that there were particles of the substance used to make Gym Badges owned especially by Gym Leaders on his clothes, revealing to that he must be a Trainer of some Gym. The Masked Man first appears in the Ilex Forest, controlling the Charcoal Kiln and his to battle Gold. He then appeared to Gold, who thought that his Pokémon were wild, and told him to leave this forest. He easily defeated Gold and disappeared. Later, he would show up to battle Silver and Gold at the Lake of Rage and revealed Silver's past to Gold before defeating them both by freezing the entire lake and sending them both plummeting toward the rock bottom, a measure that would have been fatal had not arrived and saved them. He then lays low at the headquarters and commands grunts to capture . To keep and Eusine distracted, he sent a disguised as Suicune to battle them. The grunts failed in their mission however and Suicune escaped because of Spore. He is then confronted by Lt. Surge at Team Rocket's new base in Mahogany Town. Lt. Surge was defeated, but he was able to escape and have his Electrode blow the base up. However, the Masked Man was confident Lt. Surge would not report him to the police since he was formerly a member of Team Rocket and would be arrested as well. The Masked Man eventually gains the control of the Legendary Pokémon, Ho-Oh and , both of which he captured before, and leads them to rampage at the Pokémon League so he can gain the secret behind the time-traveling Poké Ball from Kurt. Later on, by completing the GS Ball, he captures Celebi in the Ilex Forest and goes back in time. Gold, having followed the Masked Man and also having revealed the Masked Man's real identity, eventually succeeds in defeating him and freeing Celebi. In High-tailing It from Haunter, the Masked Man was briefly seen when the Advanced level Grunt was talking to about the past accomplishments of the Pokédex holders. Pokémon On hand is the Masked Man's most used Pokémon, typically assisting his ice-controlling abilities with its flight ability. It is so well-trained that, even with a type disadvantage, it was used for and succeeded in capturing the powerful, Legendary . However, with quick thinking on Gold's part, it was taken down by Polibo's . Delibird's known moves are , , , and .}} is another one of the Masked Man's battlers. It first debuted in a round named after its species, and casually overwhelmed Gold's Exbo and its entire team with alacrity, as did its fellow team members. It is later seen again on the Masked Man's team in both the battles at the Lake of Rage, as well as in the Team Rocket HQ situated in Mahogany Town when Lt. Surge infiltrated the base. There, it displayed the ability to use its howl to call upon many wild Houndour for assistance when needed. Houndour's known moves are , , , , and .}} is typically used for battles that require its threads. Although it is kept on his main team, it hardly saw any action after Gold's first meeting with the villain, instead being shown once with Houndour in a group attack and deftly defeated by Aibo's maneuver. Ariados's only known move is .}} is technically the first member of the Masked Man's team to be seen on-screen, doing so when it unmasked itself and showed that it had possessed a Trainer and his . Because it is not as powerful as some of the other Pokémon that he trains, it uses its ghostly possession abilities to do its dirty work, and, when possible, uses surprise attacks while hiding in its Trainer's ragged clothing. Gastly's known moves are and .}} Released was alluded to as early as flashbacks in the , where it was described as being a huge bird Pokémon that kidnapped , it wasn't until midway into the that it made its first true appearance. There, it clashed with its former master, who had earlier had a team of s demolish the Tin Tower and most of Ecruteak City to draw it out. Soon enough, its battle with "him" was shown to Gold and , confounding them as the Masked Man's identity was narrowed down to those among the 16 Gym Leaders in Johto and Kanto. Eventually, it was caught by the Pokégear-controlled dummy that was set up by Masked Man, and rampaged in Indigo Plateau alongside . Soon, after its Rainbow Wing had been extracted, both the Legendary Pokémon were lent to Karen and Will, and fought against Green's , and was eventually brought back to its senses. As it has yet to be shown upon it regaining freedom, it is not known where it and Lugia ended up settling in.}} 's first appearance dates back to the end of the , where it was summoned by Lance to complete his plans of creating a utopia for Pokémon where humans that abuse Pokémon or destroy their habitats would be no more. Lance was eventually beaten, and the Badge Amplifier energy Lugia had absorbed transferred to the soils of mainland Kanto, where it would spread life instead of bringing about death. It was in the Whirl Islands where it made its proper debut, finally identified as a Lugia for the first time. Although the resuscitated Gold, Silver, and Crystal stood little chance against its might at first, their starters all evolved and helped deliver a critical blow by aiming straight for its forehead to maximize its catch rate. A bright flash of light soon followed, after which it seemed to have been trapped in the Ball Crystal had kicked, the three young Pokédex holders were shocked to find that it was empty, and were led to assume that it ran. In reality, however, the Masked Man was behind the attack which caused its rampage all along, and was revealed to have caught it himself as he appeared at Indigo Plateau and led an attack on the league alongside , which he also had recaught. Eventually, after much turmoil, Lugia was freed and flew off with its fellow bird.}} was the object of the Masked Man's longing, and, the only Pokémon he could never manage to capture on his own. His dedication to acquire it for his plans (later revealed to have been for the sake of reuniting his with its deceased parents) was so strong that he would visit the shrine in the Ilex Forest to attempt to catch it, not being aware of the existence of the GS Ball's purpose or existence at the time. Six years prior to the events of the series, he was in one of the weakened periods where he lay comatose from the wounds he received, and this allowed Green and Silver to make their escape. 9 years later, he would finally complete the GS Ball using the Silver and Rainbow Wings he plucked from Lugia and Ho-Oh, and succeeds in capturing this very elusive Mythical Pokémon. However, though his Lapras, Glacier, succeeded in traveling to the past to meet its parents, the GS Ball was destroyed by Pibu, and he ended up stuck in the voids of time, where Celebi sends past memories of the song his old chums had written for him when his two Lapras died.}} Trivia * In either of his two identities, is the only evolved that the Masked Man uses. Names 戴面具的男子 |fr=Homme Masqué |ko=얼음 가면의 사나이 |pt_br=Homem mascarado Cara da Máscara (PS114) |es_eu=Hombre Enmascarado |th=ชายสวมหน้ากาก Masked Man |vi=Người đàn ông đeo mặt nạ }} Mask of Ice Category:Pokémon Adventures characters Category:Members of Team Rocket Category:Criminal masterminds Category:Trainers with Legendary or Mythical Pokémon de:Mann mit der Maske (Pocket Monsters SPECIAL) fr:Homme Masqué it:Maschera di Ghiaccio zh:假面男